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Big tech companies are still trying to rally workers back into physical offices, and many workers are still not having it. Based on a recent report, computer-maker Dell has stumbled even more than most.

Dell announced a new return-to-office initiative earlier this year. In the new plan, workers had to classify themselves as remote or hybrid.

Those who classified themselves as hybrid are subject to a tracking system that ensures they are in a physical office 39 days a quarter, which works out to close to three days per work week.

Alternatively, by classifying themselves as remote, workers agree they can no longer be promoted or hired into new roles within the company.

Business Insider claims it has seen internal Dell tracking data that reveals nearly 50 percent of the workforce opted to accept the consequences of staying remote, undermining Dell's plan to restore its in-office culture.

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[-] ChapulinColorado@lemmy.world 208 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

They didn’t opt to accept the consequences. They opted to look for another job once the salary expectations a jump make sense. Perhaps it’s what dell wanted in order to avoid headlines about layoffs.

[-] Auli@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 week ago

And where would they go? It would have to be a smaller company as all the big tech companies seem to be laying people off.

[-] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 26 points 1 week ago

Not necessarily a bad thing. End of last year I moved to a smaller company with better benefits and 30% increase on my salary.

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[-] FenrirIII@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago

They're all counting on AI to replace people and will be sorely disappointed

[-] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 week ago

They've got plenty of time to make the jump since they can just coast along with their Dell salary until them. Quitting starts a clock until you have to just accept whatever is available, but staying employed and knowing you have to leave eventually let's you start looking without the pressure.

[-] 9point6@lemmy.world 104 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Atlassian have proven (along with a load of other companies and academic studies) that forcing people to work in an office is an anchor on productivity.

CEOs that are forcing their employees to come back into the office are willfully pissing away productivity.

That is arguably negligent from an investment perspective

Edit: fixed the link

[-] Wooki@lemmy.world 33 points 1 week ago

Its got nothing to do with this.

Dell are struggling financially, this is a great method to reduce workforce size with minimal cost.

[-] 9point6@lemmy.world 58 points 1 week ago

And I'm highlighting that it's short-termist and self defeating

Companies like atlassian do what they can to make sure they don't lose their best talent, what I linked is documented proof of that working.

Dell are trying to reduce costs by reducing the reasons an employee would want to stay.

Do you think they're gonna lose the employees they would choose to?

No, they're going to lose their best.

It's pissing away productivity for no tangible benefit and doing so in a pretty permanent way—who is going to work for a company with that reputation?

It's not just them nailing themselves into a coffin, it's basically them pointing the nail gun at their face.

[-] KevonLooney@lemm.ee 20 points 1 week ago

Exactly. Employees are not cookie cutter duplicates. The more productive ones always have more options, even when you treat them all the same. This is worse for the company than firing people randomly.

[-] ArbiterXero@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

Productivity is for companies who want substance.

We only want continuous stock price increases regardless of how much it rots a company from the inside out.

That’s for someone else to carry about after I’m gone.

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[-] Nachorella@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 1 week ago

I suspect that this has nothing to do with productivity for most companies. I'm not smart enough or really concerned enough with why CEOs are massive assholes to look into this - but I figured it has to do with other stuff like property.

If you own a building and rent out space to cafes and gyms or you charge for parking etc there's a lot of incentives to get your little cash cows back in the building.

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[-] Clydesdalecrusher@programming.dev 80 points 1 week ago

It seems like they gave a bunch of people a notice to find new jobs as a form of promotion

[-] dave881@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago

That may well be the point. Dell gets the head count reduction, improving the bottom line, without the headline about mass layoffs

[-] BedSharkPal@lemmy.ca 29 points 1 week ago

Seems to me like this would disproportionately cause losses in the most talented employees

[-] dustyData@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week ago

They know, they just don't care. The payroll goes down, the profit goes up. The most talented are also the most expensive ones and they're also the most expensive to dismiss legally on a layoff process. If they leave on their own they save Dell a ton of money. What they want is to keep operations without disturbing revenue, you don't need the best talent to achieve that, you only need the good enough.

[-] MNByChoice@midwest.social 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

No. The CEO will stay. Everyone else is a replaceable cog.

Signed,
CEO of Dell
/sarcasm

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[-] reddig33@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

The problem is that the layoff isn’t targeted. Talented people can more easily find another job that will still let them work from home. That leaves Dell with a higher percentage of untalented employees than competitors.

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[-] qevlarr@lemmy.world 70 points 1 week ago

Promotions aren't a thing anymore anyways, are they? Only if you switch jobs can you get a raise

[-] SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 28 points 1 week ago

A few jobs back, my employer promoted me once within a year of starting from a new college graduate position to a junior position, then strung me along for three years with "you're just not quite ready for a mid level position but you will be. Any day now!" This was all in spite of me doing the work of a senior position within the company for the last two years.

So I got a job at a different employer and went from a junior position to a senior position, like magic, nearly doubling my total income in the process. My coworker did the same, hopping from a senior position to a management position at my current employer. I've increasingly observed how corporate United States is painfully stupid and inefficient and it continues to boggle my mind

[-] uis@lemm.ee 6 points 6 days ago

I've increasingly observed how corporate United States is painfully stupid and inefficient and it continues to boggle my mind

B-b-but capitalism! Will rule out inefficient companies!

Yeah. The world is broken.

[-] hessenjunge@discuss.tchncs.de 30 points 1 week ago

This is not just the US, it is the norm world wide.

It’s also not limited to job relations either. “New customer? Let me show you this sweet deal.” - “Oh, you’re already a customer? Then it’s full price I’m afraid”

You need to regularly review/change contracts.

[-] derpgon@programming.dev 15 points 1 week ago

Back in my (born 1996) days, the longer you were a customer the sweeter deals you had. 8 years already a customer? Maybe we can strike a cheaper offer rather than you running to someone else.

[-] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 6 days ago

I'm in Australia and we still do this? I have a loyalty discount for being a customer for 7 years, AU$57/month for unlimited data on my mobile and free calls to 40 countries ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[-] derpgon@programming.dev 2 points 6 days ago

They got rid of it here, sadly. Or at least i haven't seen any loyalty behavior from the big brands lately.

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[-] gmtom@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

Going to use this chance to vent about the fact that when the senior guy on my team left for another company it was basically all but confirmed I would take over his role I had been there the longest, was already doing a lot of senior work, and was the giy people on the team came to when they needed help, to the point we spent the month or so after he handed in his notice to train me on what he did and give me access to the systems he managed. Then a week after he left my boss announced that the guy that had been there 3 months would be taking on the senior role.

[-] Nommer@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 days ago

Who's kid was he?

[-] tmcgh@lemm.ee 8 points 1 week ago

I sure hope you are able to and are actively looking for a different employer. That sucks man...sorry to hear it.

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[-] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 46 points 1 week ago

So the workers opted to continue remote work at the convenience of not getting promoted, and I bet my top dollar they lost any motivation they had and are all now looking for new gigs 😂

[-] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 1 week ago

Looking for new gigs is currently the new normal regarding promotions anyway, according to HMW. Since companies have long shown that have no loyalty to their workforce and will lay them off as soon as they need their numbers to go up for shareholders.

And new hires to positions get paid better than promotions from within to the same positions. So it's better just to routinely keep sending out résumés to openings.

So the no promotions threat is mostly a paper tiger.

[-] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It's true, whenever I'm done with my salary I go for a new gig. Huge percentage of increase every time instead of this corp-speak "1-3%" bullshit. With job change I typically see around 30%

[-] odelik 40 points 1 week ago

Dell is out there just proving that the best promotions are external promotions.

[-] mechoman444@lemmy.world 36 points 1 week ago

Remember people, the power is in the workforce.

The greatest con ever conducted was to convince the largest population of people on the face of the planet, the middle class that we have no power.

We hold literally all the power.

All we have to do is collectively as a society stand up to these corporations and tell them that we will work only on our terms not on theirs.

[-] Justas@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 week ago

It's not that the middle class has no power, it simply has too much to lose if they choose to revolt.

What if your revolution fails and you lose your money and your house? What if it succeeds and your new government decides you have too much?

That is why the middle class is a stabilising force in country's politics. And if they lose their stuff, and feel like they have nothing to lose but their chains, then some higher ups lose their heads.

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[-] Grass@sh.itjust.works 27 points 1 week ago

haha get fucked dell

[-] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 week ago

Their intent is to lay off workers without any of the trappings of laying off workers. If some of them happen to stick around despite the reduced benefits, dell’s happy. IBM’s been doing it to rob people of their pension for like 60 years now.

[-] Stoney_Logica1@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago

A nice and public "fuck you" to C-level staff in tech. Remote work isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

[-] AllHailTheSheep@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 week ago

I mean... yeah. a lot of us have realized that office jobs tend to be dead end. you're great at what you do? awesome, the company views that as free labor. why promote you when they can just suck every ounce of work out of you for less?

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[-] fubarx@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 week ago

If these companies were serious about on-site work and how much better it is, they would pay for time while commuting and transportation expenses.

[-] henfredemars@infosec.pub 15 points 1 week ago

Like they were going to get promoted anyway. That’s not todays job market.

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[-] Fedizen@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago

Dell Managers revealed as weenies.

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this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2024
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